Differentiated Instruction Inservice
Stage 2, Module 1
July 26, 2011
St. Gregarious School
"Educating for Life's Journey"


This wiki page will serve as a dynamic resource for your differentiated instruction endeavors.
You all have access to add content as you continue to grow in your craft. (See the last section.)


A Word From the Expert

Carol Tomlinson shares a message about differentiated instruction.
http://differentiationcentral.com/whatisdi.html

Pre-Assessment Review

Where are you on the line?

Review of Timeline

St. Gregarious has committed to a four-year implementation of differentiated instruction training. We believe in providing effective resources to our talented teachers and will walk the journey in excellence together.
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Differentiated Instruction Model

Differentiated Instruction can be executed through six steps. These steps should serve as a general outline for your planning.
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Sample Lesson Plan

Below is an example of what a differentiated instruction lesson plan looks like.





Strengths and Weaknesses

Understanding the benefits and obstacles of DI assists in being a reflective practitioner.
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Discussion

Questions from DI Training Stage 1, Module 2
1.How does class size and range of ability influence differentiation?
2. How does DI fit with the standards?
3. How does assessment/grading/differentiation coexist?

Feedback

1. Please provide feedback through this survey so we may continually improve our DI inservices.
2. Please complete the post card and address it to your school or home.

Thank you for your participation and attention today. We will continue to strengthen our DI skills in Stage 2, Module 2 this winter. As you continue to grow in your skills, remember that we are "Companions on the Journey" in Educating for Life's Journey.

What's Your Experience?

The space below is for our staff to share their experiences, both positive and negative, with differentiated instruction. Maintaining an open dialogue and sharing with each other will help us learn from one another. Remain anonymous or leave your name.

Successes to Share
Challenges I Encountered
6th grade math class -
Using the chapter pre-test
I was able to put a small group
of advanced students together.
I had a form for them to use as they
worked through the chapter
semi-independently.
Others were interested in the group
and wanted to know how they could get
"different homework" too.
*I used "Swimming Pool Field Trip" story
and it seemed to go over okay.
Gabe- (high functioning autisic) passed
his math assessment by using the Smart
board after school.
This was time consuming, but he got 13/15
problems correct. Used ineffective methods
of solving, but came to correct answer.
I find that my high achieving students are challenged more appropriately when I differentiate. I feel like a better teacher because differentiation helps high achieving students learn how to learn. (This skill is important to develop because things won't always be "easy.")
I sometimes find myself wanting to switch students into different groups in the middle of a task. Sometimes my grouping seems really off and I just want to "fix" it. I resist the temptation because students already made some progress, but I think sometimes it would be appropriate to make some adjustments. Any thoughts?
When my class breaks up to accomplish different tasks I get better questions and think I am meeting my students needs more specifically by not slowing kids down to hear something they already know or confusing the kids that are struggling.
I am struggling with giving up the control of having the whole class' attention on me at all times.











Ways we grouped in Stage 1
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